API to convert lat lon to NYC neighborhood

Question

Is there a hosted API that converts a latitude and longitude into a Manahttan neighborhood?

I know that Zillow has a shapefile but I'd much rather just use an API.

I've looked a few questions. It looks like NYC open data also has neighborhood information.

The closest I've come to finding an API that takes lat lon is the times Districts API but it seems to be deprecated as it's not on their list of API's and the links redirect to those lists.

Is there a publicly available API? Or do I need to create a heroku app with a zillow shapefile and create my own?

Google maps only returns manhattan in its geocoding response, not a specific neighborhood in Manhattan

Answer 1

You can use MapBox API for reverse geocoding and parse the JSON data obtained to extract the Neighborhood name. I made a small example that you can inspire from.

Code:

//You can get your access_token if needed from mapbox.com
var access_token = '?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoibWFwYm94IiwiYSI6ImNpejY4NXVycTA2emYycXBndHRqcmZ3N3gifQ.rJcFIG214AriISLbB6B5aw';
var urlInit = 'https://api.mapbox.com/geocoding/v5/';
var mode = 'mapbox.places/';
var type = '&types=neighborhood';

$('#go').click(function() {
  $('#result').html('');
  lonlatInput = $('#lonlat').val();
  lonlatInput = lonlatInput.split(',');
  lonlat = lonlatInput[0].trim() + '%2C' + lonlatInput[1].trim() + '.json';
  getNeighborhood(lonlat);
});

function getNeighborhood(lonlat) {
  var url = urlInit + mode + lonlat + access_token + type;
  $.ajax({
    type: 'GET',
    url: url,
    success: function(rgeo) {
      var result = rgeo;
      var neighborhood = rgeo.features[0].text;
      $('#result').html(neighborhood);
    },
    error: function(rgeo) {
      console.log(rgeo);
    }
  });
}

#result {
  padding: 10px;
  font-size: 2em;
  color: blue;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<input type="text" value="-73.945462,40.830182" id="lonlat" />
<button id="go">Geocode</button>
<div id="result"></div>

See this example in JsFiddle

Answer 2

There are a couple of solutions to your objective such as CartoDB integrations, Bing Location API, geopy, geocoder, SmartyStreets API and others.

Let us explore this using CartoDB:

Create a file with longitude and latitude coordinates in NYC.

Use an NYC neighborhoods geometry file from Zillow

Upload the files to Cartodb and geoencode the longitude and latitude coordinates as a geometry object in your longitude and latitude coordinate file.

Run the following SQL query from within the file:

SELECT a.*, 
       b.neighborhood 
FROM inputFileName
as a, 
   nyc_pediacities_neighborhoods_v3_polygon as b 
WHERE ST_Within(a.the_geom,b.the_geom)

We are creating two objects, inputFile as a and the shapefile as b, then match the geometries against one another with the WHERE clause.

We are creating a new column with rows denoting the NYC neighborhood of the longitude and latitude of the same row.

Simply export the file in a desirable format and enjoy the information.

One can easily automate the process using one of their integrations. This will closely act as an ideal API. See this

The python package geopy also deserves attention. Check this

One can achieve the same result using the Bing Location API. See API

Another feasible solution is to construct your own API from the open data.

Check geocoder and SmartyStreets